Zoe Sperling on Nairy Baghramian’s ‘Side Leaps_Spatial Compositions’

Why It Matters

The installation challenges conventional art chronology, offering a model for autonomous, reference‑rich sculpture that resonates with institutions and collectors seeking timeless relevance.

Key Takeaways

• Installation titled “Side Leaps, Spatial Compositions” remains intentionally undated.
• Blue limb-like forms suspend from metal plank, evoking abattoir aesthetics.
• References to Noguchi, Kobro, Arp, Schwitters shape its vocabulary.
• Work emphasizes statelessness, autonomy, and exposed structural elements.
• Sperling frames piece as dialogue between past avant‑garde and future art.

Summary

Zoe Sperling examines Nairy Baghramian’s installation “Side Leaps, Spatial Compositions,” a work deliberately left undated to underscore its precarious, stateless character.

The piece consists of blue, limb‑like structures hanging from a metal plank on hooks reminiscent of an abattoir. By exposing backs, angles, screws and fixtures, Baghramian foregrounds the materiality of sculpture and invites viewers to interrogate the relationships between form and function.

Sperling points out explicit references to Isamu Noguchi, Katarzyna Kobro, Jean Arp and Kurt Schwitters, noting that the work re‑appropriates their avant‑garde vocabularies while maintaining a distinct formalism. She quotes, “Everything is exposed… those relationships are the work itself,” emphasizing the self‑referential nature of the installation.

Positioned as a microcosm of Baghramian’s own language, the work argues for art that can exist independently of historical or institutional anchors, signaling a broader shift toward autonomous, temporally fluid practices in contemporary sculpture.

Original Description

Part of an ongoing series, the work brings together distinct strands of Baghramian’s practice: ‘Side Leaps,’ a body of sketches, drawings, and maquettes produced throughout her career that function as conceptual, unresolved investigations rather than preparatory works, and ‘Spatial Compositions,’ the sculptural arrangement of these elements on unpainted metal structures. Combining disparate forms into deliberately ambiguous configurations, the series explores ideas of displacement, instability, and the shifting identities of objects.